I don’t like to wait. I have an aversion to waiting. Time is a ruthless enemy, and my war with the clock is relentless. I know that entropy will win in the end (ashes to ashes, dust to dust). And the patience to burn time is galling to me. All of that notwithstanding, there are ways to use time while you wait, and to some extent, that’s how I structure my life. There are events that are beyond my control, so it’s back to the circle of influence = circle of concern. Most people have a huge circle of concern and a tiny circle of influence. Shrinking that gap is the goal.
Blog followers may have noticed an uptick in my writing output (novels, including face-lifts like The Old Whore, which is now available in pulp for those of you who are interested). Again, if you like the work, please give me a positive review. I realize that Bloody Mexico and The Old Whore (Cartel Wars Series) are more raw than some of my other writing. They have to be to address the subject matter and the situations that one finds oneself confronting in a significant part of Latin America, both when they were first written, fifteen years ago, and today. If the subject matter and the reality of the situations bother you, that series might not have much of an appeal. Even though written as a series, I think that both books stand alone quite well.
Some of you expressed an interest in knowing more about the character Chief Special Operator Darryl Slater USN in the short story ‘Conduct Unbecoming.’ His story, for the purposes of my writing, begins in The Old Whore.
I still work in Latin America, and on projects dealing with the legal end of things. I am on the phone dealing with those projects almost every day at some level. A friend of mine whose adult son reads my work asked me if I’d revisit a new generation of Cartel Wars based on the current trends (extending to Cuba and Venezuela). Maybe down the road, once some of the current writing projects have been fleshed out.
Some of you know that I also work in the Middle East from time to time. To say that the war with Iran has been disruptive is an understatement. Though I don’t fault the Trump Administration for taking the actions they took, the ripples from the war we are now fighting will echo for many decades in neighboring countries. I may have an angle on salvaging some of my work in Iraq and Kurdistan (vague here on purpose), and though it’s a slender thread, I work on that to different degrees as well.
One way that I spend slack time is in writing both this blog (take it as you find it) and commercial writing – novels. The commercial writing is not much more of a commercial success than the blog is, but both scratch that time itch.
Pres. Trump
“We’re going to take out all of the bridges in Iran next…”
Then the railroads
Bullet Points:
** Without the US, the UK is almost completely defenseless. Which is why the King is headed to DC at the end of the month for a state visit.
** Bullet point graphic (right) – h/t EdB. Yes indeed.
** Illegal Aliens in the UK, social degradation, and feckless government spending. This is an interesting perspective – and while I didn’t particularly want to whip that pony today, there was a bright glimmer of moral clarity – and a refusal to take government cheese – that I thought was noteworthy.
** I don’t know whether this is clickbait or not: President Trump is preparing full, unconditional pardons for Julian Assange and Edward Snowden—the truth warriors who exposed war crimes, rigged elections, and the NSA’s illegal spying machine. Hunted and exiled by the Obama-Biden crime syndicate, they are now poised to receive justice.
** Walsh on the US Space Program: The reason we haven’t been back to the moon has nothing to do with your retarded conspiracy theories. The reason is that NASA destroyed itself with DEI, while our country bankrupted itself with an out-of-control green energy scams designed to launder funds to the democrat party and bolster Red China, a welfare state, and mass immigration from the third world. Now we spend billions of dollars every year buying Doritos for fat people and providing health care to African immigrants. It’s really not that hard to connect the dots here. You don’t need to invent any cinematic conspiracy scenario or start babbling about how “space isn’t real” like a schizophrenic crackhead. It’s the welfare state and immigration. That’s the reason why we stopped doing most of the cool shit we used to do. The reason is the welfare state and immigration.
** BRM increases the signal on shotguns for sale at reasonable prices here.
** A friend, SE, texted me to say they follow my blog but disagree with me on almost every topic. Friends can disagree. Iran was a couple of weeks from producing an atomic bomb (per them), and they had the delivery systems to hit Europe. Clearly, they could have hit Israel. Israel has a number of nuclear warheads, exceeding 100. Israel would have retaliated and flattened Iran with nuclear weapons. The death toll may have been 40-60 million people.
The US punitive strikes against Iran (death toll a few thousand) reduced or eliminated their capacity to make effective war, likely their nuclear weapons development has been put back a decade or so. Would it have been better to have had a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel? Within a couple of years, Iran could have hit the US with ICBMs. They promised to hit the US and Israel (Great and Little Satan) with nuclear weapons to bring about the coming of their 12th Imam, who would Islamize the planet. Do you think that would have been a good thing? This is a fair question, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you like President Trump or senile old Joe Biden better.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2 prototypes only.
2
Identify the Ships
3 & 4
I just like the picture. Yes, I know, easy ID.
5
End
1 is North American YF-93 an attempt to upgrade F-86 Sabre.
2 is Boeing 737-200 upgraded to NT-43A Bobcat.
3 is USS Chandler final ship in the Kidd class.
Some us refer to the Kidd Class as the “Dead Admiral Class” -and yes, well done.
1 – North American YF-93A
2 – Boeing NT-43A
3 – USS Long Beach
4 – USS Chandler
5 – Japanese Asagiri-class destroyer
Exactly
I remember building a model of the USS Long Beach in the mid to late 60s and learning a bit about it. Seemed like a very interesting ship design at the time.
Everything about it was experimental. I remember seeing it in port when I was a boy. It was there in Long Beach.
Without the US, the UK is almost completely defenseless – By Design? I believe you can make that case. Will King Chuck3 ask President Trump for help with UK defense? That would certainly be some entertaining negotiations. The UK has allowed themselves to be invaded, no they sent out an invitations for a invasion. Unless they quickly start deportations and stop immigration they will not have a need for an Air Force or Navy as the enemy is already inside the gates.
Yes, the fifth column has already captured London. I have seen that for myself. The economy is in a shambles, and the financial priorities are directed toward the support of more fifth columnists. At some point, a conscripted army would be a grand Muslim army of the Caliphate, wouldn’t it? When you look around the globe, the few Muslim nations that don’t support the US are England, France, Iran, and Germany.
.
King Cider doesn’t command much in Old Blighty. Oh, he’s wealthy enough, but in terms of power, he doesn’t have much. I suspect a few realists have suggested to him that damage control might be in order, but I think that ship has sailed. Financially, the Old Oak (City of London Bankers) are losing their grip as the money flees taxation and leaves them with the great unwashed who are clamoring for halal cheese.
You left out the word “immigration” in the reason for the UK’S collapse
That too.
I used invasion in place of immigration. That was the start of their downfall.
Immigrants bring the whole family. Immigrants want to bring the good portions, like food and music, from their old culture.
–
Invaders, on the other hand, only come as males. And demand the new land bend over and become the old culture, or else.
–
(Dot) Indians have mostly immigrated and assimilated. Hindis, Sihks, Jahns and Gurkas. All (relatively) good people (well, in the past.) Other (muslim) Indians, not so much, as they invaded.
Curiously, it’s the muslims that seem to cause (most) all the problems.
I suspect TPTB in Britain will make an example out of the hotelier and connive some way to destroy him for daring to put his own people first.
Gutsy move going on TV.
Walsh, Space, and welfare; also part of the Demolition Party’s priorities was the gift and graft of laundromat$ of foreign welfare like USAID, the initial plane load of cash, then subsequent subsidies. @ 83 million per month to the Taliban? So, yes, corrupted global welfare and the indirect funding of Sharia terrorism. ( I’m not talking about legit temporary efforts in a local like where there if a drought ect. )
X2…The entire DC Swamp is rife with felonious cheatery. Look at SSA and Medicare, a total backdoor tax mess WTP are forced into from paycheck #1 that adds to the criminal political enterprise that our federal government has become…because there is zero oversight available when most of them are participating. Walsh is correct, yet if he started listing all the ways we get hosed by these bums he’d run out of room. DC Critters constantly justify conjured up “appropriations” that go…where? Usually into someones pocket. Just last week Cheater Warren is proposing…again…a wealth tax that is just under her $40+M worth ($40MILLION!…how does that happen?…and she’s only one). So when Obama sends a pallet of cash to fund our enemies and sees zero prison…that means the political class are all in on it. Ukraine was another. The list in endless…and untangling the mess is next to impossible, short of people telling them to go pound sand and stop paying Federal taxes for a year…they can’t arrest everyone.
argh..*…just OVER her 40+M worth.’
The ability to buy votes with “our own money” has been successful.
.
EdB and I exchanged a few words last night about how the Beltway Bandits figured out how to squeeze more juice from the trough. Many in the military and in other government jobs quit their government job and go to work for contractors who place them back into the SAME chair they just vacated at 2X or 3X the money.
Exactly…can’t blame them. Yet how does that get unravelled? Likely never at this point, too ingrained into the Nebula.
I don’t think that there was ever a historical moment where it wasn’t an issue in a bureaucracy.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. North American YF-93
2. Boeing NT-43A
Identify the Ships:
3. Then USS Chandler, now ROCS Ma Kong
4. USS Long Beach
5. JS Asagiri
Well done!
Don’t know what it is, but Japan has, for the most part, always made some good looking ships. Though their earlier carriers were all weird looking and bad rough-water sailers due to that weird open nose (which was originally to allow planes to take off from the flight deck or the hangar deck, no, really…)
–
Especially their destroyers. They always look like they’re moving, even when they’re not.
Shotgun super sale; I thought I’d go over and pick one out. I don’t have a couple safes full already like a friend of mine. Looking at what I’d want, and use for various purposes I’d have to have big hands for a carry out. Of all things, CDNN sports is in Abilene TX, the city where we shop…and will be meeting with our accountant to file taxes this afternoon. Priorities; be on the job @ 8am. Call CDNN at 9 and investigate terms, stock, and deadlines. Then asses the bird hunting “tool” and Zombie nuetralizer budget after we find out thee number, and likely pay thee number Uncle determines we owe.
Firearms appreciate.
You can deduct the expenses as a religious experience.
New hovel will be a 501c3 ‘house of religion’…Tax free baby! (Was going to start a Learing Center or Hospice for all the Federal free cheese but lately those have gotten a bad rap so will stick with a church.)
😊
I think that you should make it a learning center and import some Somalis to give it the right vibe.
Everytime I see Mayor Pete dressed like that I hear “Monty Python” Singing “He’s a Lumberjack”.
Keep up the Good Work And Happy Easter to All , He Has Risen
Mayor Pete, the rump ranger – what a frigging joke.
He’s like that ONE mosquito that buzzes around your head in the evening, massively annoying and just as irrelevant to the world, yet can’t quite swat him away.
Driving through Ann Arbor and stopped behind a car with (as typical) a number of stickers, one being “Pete”.
I managed not to rear end them from a standing start.
It is Easter, good for your restraint.
Rear-ending Pete might get you a smile.
Not Pete! The car!
How about a compromise. Rear-end Pete with a car? A fast moving car? I’m sure there’s a tranny or muslim out there who can be worked up to do so.
LL… unusual question. What size font and white margins do you use in your printed books? I find it perfect for my old eyes. Not too small, not ridiculously large.
*
Ok, I bought the “The Old Whore” just for that exquisite cover. Nice.
*
I read the Kindle version of “The Old Whore” long past but I’m seeing a redo as soon as the paper book arrives. Also, LL .. while the book is certainly dark at times it’s not that raw. It’s accurate in its description of terrible things. It’s well written, a good read.
*
Picture four … check out the blue/white four door cars on the dock. Goodness memories.
*
Current Iran war. I’ve been surprised at the very low Iran casualties. That’s been alot of “boom and poof”.
I use Velum (software) for formatting. The company updates its product and does a very good job, IMHO, in providing what writers need to create polished work. Gone – long gone is the need to format myself in Word or something else. Amazon offers different options for formatting (white/off-white) and fonts for print and digital. They have done a LOT of research, and I go with their default, which seems to work well. If it makes me seem lazy – well, yes. Some of what is available now does make the process much easier for writers to self-publish.
.
Yes, there is a SLIGHT re-do in print now. Typos from 15 years ago should be all but gone. I’m going to update the digital version too. I haven’t done that yet, but I will today. When I reread the story I hadn’t read for well over a decade, I found it all held together and didn’t require much editing. The characters that were in my head then, remained. Gary Granger, Corizon (The Black Knife) de Silva, and their relationship. Corizon is taken from an actual person I know that I thought of whenever I worked on the character’s reaction and general behavior – true of many of the characters I write – in Broken Toys and Hungry Ghosts, most recently, too. I have fun writing the FBI agents in Hungry Ghosts and simply close my eyes and see them. Patterned after so many.
.
The US is trying to avoid civilian casualties. If we cut off their electrical grid and water supply, I expect to see cholera there during the summer. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it. Cause and effect takes over.
I find it sort of humorous how some still do not believe PDJT when he says he’s going to do something then are surprised when he follows through. Blew up the tall bridge in Iran, yet some are aghast he did it. Says more about them than him, as if to them America is supposed to take the hit THEN react after getting whacked instead of taking out the enemy before they can do real damage. It’s like they have no clue what strategy and military operations do and prefer we get harmed. Nah, that can’t be it. (Snark)
***
Pardons: Let’s hope so. What would be telling is the preemptive hue and cry from ‘the worried ones’ once they get wind this may happen…thou “doth protest too much, methinks.”
😀
Why don’t people believe PDJT? Because, just like his first term, the American People (as a whole) are so used to politicians lying that they fully expect the complete opposite from what the politicians say is going to happen. “If you like your plan you can keep your plan…” Yeah, right.
–
Talked to my FDR Democrat mother yesterday and since she’s stopped watching the news all day long (hey, she’s 95, her mom died at 95 after 2 bouts of leukemia and several sections of bowel removed, so mom, I fully expect, will probably break 100 or so. And, yes, she’s fat, like her mom, like her mom’s father, like his father… gee, obesity maybe isn’t as deadly as the doctors and the medical insurance industry says it is…) she’s actually had her eyes opened as to what’s really going on. Not saying she loves Trump, but she does think he’s doing a good job. And once all the facts about the WH Ballroom were explained to her (by me) she now thinks that’s a great idea.
For anyone who has actually VISITED the East Wing, the WH Ballroom was a no-brainer, plus adding a bunker underneath it for badly needed space. It was simply too small to do much with (before), and in DC, finding space like that for state functions with integrated security is difficult. I don’t know how they handle food prep with this facility, but I’m sure they figured it out. The only problem that the Democrats (TDS) have with it is that President Trump did it with private funds.
Correction: the only problem Democrats have with the Ballroom is Trump did it. No other reason needed.
–
And, of course, some leftist activist judge has issued a stop order on the Ballroom. Now we get to see how the Trump administration works around that jackass.
King Dumbo ears is about as relevant as the dog poo that my bicycle tire ran over yesterday. Imagine this clown clad in armor sitting on a horse with a sword leading 100,000 towel heads into battle against the French.
King Dumbo-ears didn’t give an Easter Proclamation as head of the Church of England. Funny, he did give a Ramadan Proclamation. Hmmm… Doesn’t that say everything about England that you need to know?
Why would Iran wait until they developed ICBMs with the range to reach us? Why not smuggle one into Baltimore on a freighter? Just 40 odd miles away from the White House.
They had the capacity to release uranium fog (not a detonation but a radiation spread) before now with both Israel and the US or to us poison gas. You’d have to ask the ayatollah…oh… never mind.
Thing about Baltimore, there’s still no FSK bridge to impede boat traffic for smuggling…too much construction to bither with ships running in and out, especially smaller vessels.
By the way, the latest: “The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement in Baltimore is projected to be completed by December 2030, with an estimated cost of $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion.”
We all knew government spendthrifts couldn’t get it done in short order for a decent cost…but ahh, what’s a few extra cushion billion for a bridge that was already there and one section got run into. Nope, can’t rebuild the broken part, government needs to start from scratch, tear out all the existing workable substructure and spend all the gold they have for a fancy dan new bridge with all the bells and whistles…maybe even Wifi connectivity using AI to direct ship traffic to avoid future “mishaps”. Oh, and THAT plus 6 years to get it completed, assuming they will be on their ‘estimated’ schedule, which they won’t. What, are they drilling to China for new piers? 6 years, for what?
This is why they rejected PDJT’s offer to assist, no avenue for graft over a protracted fuzzy schedule…he would have already opened the new bridge and built it for $500 million, maybe less.
They should paint the FSK gold. California has a Golden Gate, but it’s red…of course.
Trump would have installed gold toilets in the midspan bathrooms just to mess with them.
Iran doesn’t need to develop ICBMs with the range to reach us. They got their designs from North Korea and also developed a 1st Stage/Booster Stage that gives all their missiles an additional 2,000+ range. And they’ve developed containerized launchers for their current ICBMs. You know, containers that will easily fit on a container ship. So they could load containers with IRBMs, put them on ships and sail them within range of either coast and launch away. Or, worse, ship a nuke to a port and do a ground/water explosion that would cause far more damage than an air burst.
–
Iran under the ayatollahs has been saying as soon as they have nukes, they’ll hit Israel with one and The Great Satan with as many as they can. They’ve been saying it since that feckless twit Carter and the feckless politicians in France got the Shah removed.
Time is one of the things we never get back. Use it well! And a lot of us ‘understand’ your writing style… :-)
>The reason is the welfare state and immigration
I have to disagree. Politicians don’t care about money unless politics are tied into it at that moment.
We haven’t been back to the Moon because there wasn’t enough votes to gain by doing so, but lots of votes to lose if something went wrong. Welfare and pork is so much easier and safer.
I hate waiting too, but I LOVE Burning Bridges, Good work, most awesome.